Broad-leaved Osier - Salix viminalis x S. caprea = S. x smithiana
Favourite Photos
Species Description
Widespread throughout the UK though mainly as a result of planting.
Stace 4:
Salix x smithiana Willd. (S. x sericans Tausch ex A. Kern., S. x laurina auct. non Sm.; S. viminalis x S. caprea) - Broad-leaved Osier.
Shrub or small tree to 9(15)m; twigs at first hairy, soon more or less glabrous, more or less glossy, yellowish to reddish; leaves 6-12 x 1.3-3cm, densely grey-hairy on lowerside, becoming glabrous on upperside, subentire to remotely serrate; stamens free; (2n=38, 41). Native; often with parents but also relic of cultivation; common in most of British Isles. Now being planted for biomass production.
Key:
- Trees or shrubs >2m high; leaves entire, obscurely crenate-serrate, or coarsely and irregularly serrate, >3x as long as wide; bracts dark or dark-tipped (except yellowish in S. x mollissima and S. elaeagnos)
- Extension growth not malformed and fasciated
- Mature leaves hairy to tomentose on lowerside
- Leaves lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, mostly <6x as long as wide
- Wood of twigs without ridges under bark
Useful Links:
Kew (as S. gmelinii)